Acer: "We love Windows Phone 8, but..."

After their Windows Phone 7.5 handset, the Allegro, came onto the scene last year with little fanfare, Acer maintained that they were still committed to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. But after hearing nothing but crickets chirping from Acer's neck of the woods in 2013, many of us are wondering if they have wavered in that commitment. As it turns out, the answer is "yes, but..."

The Taiwanese manufacturer tells TechRadar that while "everyone in our smartphone team would really like to deploy Windows OS," the company has decided to hold off until they determine whether or not it makes business sense to do so. Allen Burnes, Acer's VP of Smartphones for EMEA said:

"We are looking at Windows Phone 8, we think it's a great OS. The integration with Xbox is nice, the enterprise suite is nice, but I think no one knows about it...We've made the decision not to launch a Windows Phone 8 device this year. Next year, depending on how we see the growth go this year, we may well do."

Burnes went on to praise Windows Phone 8's tight integration with its sibling platforms, Windows and Xbox, but said that Acer will pass on putting out a Windows Phone device in 2013 so they can gauge just how well the OS is fairing in the market. They chalk a big part of their decision up to what they perceive as Microsoft's lack of communication about Windows Phone and over-reliance on Nokia to build the brand, despite the bombardment of billboards, commercials and product placement.

Even though they were never a big player in the Windows Phone game, it is disappointing to see Acer go the way of LG, at least for the time being. Any loss of manufacturer confidence, regardless of how small, is a blow to the growth of the product.

The good news is that company's like Huawei see the value and potential in the Windows Phone and have climbed aboard. They have thrown their hat into the emerging market and economy phone ring with their Ascend W1 smartphone and appear to be on the verge of unleashing a powerful, ultra-thin handset dubbed the Ascend W2.

Although Nokia currently continues to dominate the Windows Phone market (and rightfully so!), we are hopeful that other manufacturers will taste enough success to keep at it, and possibly even inspire others to challenge Nokia's crown.

No doubt true.
Though at a same time you can't really just jump in and success at this point. Nokia has build quite of a ecosystem around Lumias. Especially nicely presented on Nokia's Amber update.
Naturally Nokia got lots of their own apps, but then there are the small tweaks, like the "other storage" fix baked in, color settings for the screen, own accessory confugurations on settings, glance clock etc.

These idoits at Acer are falling for same stupidity Microsoft and Nokia fell for when Apple and Android started developing smarter devices in their time. Now where is Microsoft and Nokia now, struggling to regain the smartphone market. The same place Acer going to be in the years to come.

First mover advantage (Apple). There are disadvantages too. Basically, Acer doesn't believe that WP will pick up steam, so they are letting NOKIA do the leg work. If NOKIA succeeds, they will have "first mover advantage" and Acer will be at a disadvantage.

Acer seem to be the biggest complainer ever... and yet they don't make anything good.... no good tablets, no good phones, medeocer pc's (although the r7 with a ATI/Nvidia chip is mine)...
we don't like this, we dont like that... we're not using that yet...
Ever think of inovating and "showing" the world a phone that makes people look at wp8... You didn't see samsung going oh yea we'll let HTC and LG make some phones first... no... samsung went in engine redlined spitting flames with guns sticking out of everywhere... I hope acer crash and burn... since when did "play it reaaal slow" and reaaal plain and boring ever work in the tech world... and also you complain about W8 and you say its crap and yet its the only OS for pc's you sell... of course your pc buisness goes down the tube... If i bake a cake and tell you i used gone off milk.... you gona eat it?

Just reminded me of something, most pc/device manufactures from Taiwan still don't like the idea od innovation, they only prefer to sticking to old methods to profit, while those old methods had been proven to be obviously obsolet, that's why they begin to profit less and less season by season, their market share is getting smaller and smaller, yet they don't bother to invest heavily on innovation, all they think about is "cost down", so pathetic.....

I had an acer...with android...The worst phone i ever owned... Broke from the first month,repaired it,broke again,repaired it,and so on untill i trashed it... They make something... But you can't call them phones :)

We had 450 WM6.5 Acer phones for our in house hand held project. They had to do over 600 repairs to them in 2 years, most of which were to do with a manufacturing fault with the digitizer. They also refunded over 100 that were so bust they couldn't repair them.

It's Acer's loss. I'm starting to notice Windows Phones at work (still dwarfed by iPhone and Android users but I am seeing them more and more) which is a good sign. I've noticed a couple of 920s in the last couple of weeks and a woman was using an HTC 8X in the elevator Tuesday. I think Acer isn't seeing the long term picture. I've loved my Lumia 710 now for over a year and would never go back to any of the others operating systems. I have a Huawei Ascend W1 preordered with Net10 and I'm looking forward to getting it in about a week.

Them as a phone manufacturer is pretty irrelevant anyways. Only makes sense to not pump money into something that turns to a money pit. Even if it was more popular they would still be irrelevant. Stick to tablets and laptop.

Its somewhat inaccurate to refer to any Windows Phone as powerful. Don't get me wrong, i love the platform, but realistically in terms of tech our flagships don't hold a candle to Android.
Here's to hoping for good things with blue, like support for higher resolutions and Krait with Adreno 320 at the very least

I disagree. It is a powerful os. It wasn't said that it was the most powerful. One could argue that all the power android has is so the os can actually be as stable/smooth as IOS and windows phone 7/8 .

Good riddance...I want top tier OEMs making WPs and Nokia is the best and they have phones at all price points...I have a 3 y/o HD7 which will be replaced by the Lumia 925 very shortly because Nokia is the only one making premium WPs...

Me too. I like their w510 tablet, but the company executives are a whiny bunch. I liked the w510 because it was cheap but extremely useful with full windows, I wasn't too much into build quality for the tablet. On the other hand, I expect usefulness and build quality from a phone so unless they make those, no acer phone for me.

Not like they make phones worth mentioning anyways. Android makes sense for them because a) it is free on paper and b) they don't ship enough units to have companies like Apple or Microsoft come after them

Basically. They're a low volume OEM that don't spend too much on R&D and their main focus is to design/sell an uninspiring, simple, plastic phone that the budget shopper will lean for. They just don't have it in them (as of yet) to design a premium handset that'll attract the minds of consumers and media alike.

MS doesn't give much product support and services in many countries such as PHL, that's the problem. For years, we have Microsoft Philippines yet they don't do much for consumers. The only times I went and had known they have a local office were to attend a few dev seminars back in college days. They show ads on tv every once in a while on primetime about Win8 yet it completely sucks.! Very uninspired and unappealing waste of money, you'd forget it entirely without even seeing the whole ad yet. Their Bing services, even Rewards don't work outside of countries like US or maybe UK, too. In fact without digging that much into the Internet, and sites like WPC, I wouldn't know about Bing. We don't even need to go talk about the maps, it's hilarious really. Nokia Maps is better thankfully. MS needs to work faster, hit stronger on the market, and support both devs and consumers, release all of their services globally reliable, GLOBALLY. Where's local MS Store.? Apple has many. They have to fully realize their company structure is so slow in terms of product releases and updates w/ both enterprise and consumer support. Services and Marketing needs to improve a lot faster.

Hi kababayan! There is no support for MS products here, that is true. Prices here for windows tablets are twice U.S. prices so I bought one there and had it shipped here so Pricing is a factor for windows tablet adaptation here. We're not even included in the Xbox One Asia rollout next year. But I have to disagree about windows 8 and Bing though. Bing on windows phone is fantastic with venue maps and visual search/translate and I prefer it to google because its curated search results are unbiased. Windows 8 gets a lot of flack from people who have never used the device or only used it for a day. I agree with you that microsoft PHL has not been doing anything for microsoft lately.

Now, they have some services but still not all. Bing scout still doesn't find anything on my L920, good thing there's Here services.. We still don't qualify for Rewards. XBox Live have only been recently activated for PHL region, just before the release of Win8/WP8. So you could just imagine why a lot of wp7 users locally can't purchase apps before because you have to use the workaround to access US Marketplace at that time. But the drawback is, if you're just using a local bank credit card there was no way to purchase Xbox games. All the while that many filipinos were already playing Xbox sold thru malls locally. For many years they have to use a trick to access Xbox Live. Nokia 800/900 were sold locally on stores without PHL Xbox services. Those times, WP7 doesn't even have a single Angry Birds game, without Xbox Live Nokia was basically selling and marketing thru their stores, carriers such as Smart and Globe hampered by the slow evolution of MS services demo-ing phones w/o premium games, and it resulted more of a disadvantage not just for Nokia but a very big stepback for Microsoft. See, that's my point. If my iPhone 3G back then, can have and access the same Apple services here in PHL as in the US, then what's holding back Microsoft from doing so.? I love Bing and it's been the default screen on my IE for maybe 3yrs now, but they have to amp up the rest of services and let it out to the rest of the world and be as premium as it is in the US. Also it's not just Bing services that is still lacking, but other MS services as well. I can't message my friends yet on Xbox Live because still no Gold subscriptions yet for the PHL region. Just another example of incomplete services from MS. They have to move faster, imo.

When it comes to Acer, I don't understand why they have to wait.. Wait for what.? OEMs have to be wary of competition, if they would be late, then there's no profit either especially if WP already means Nokia. As of now, HTC is already struggling in terms of positioning itself in WP, let's not forget about Samsung, and Huawei.. If they'd be late, they'll cry more of lack of profits.

It's a tough catch 22 MS is in with the platform. The existing OEMs are doing great but to really succeed they need more. But the OEMs that are waffling are waiting for success first. It just can't happen both ways. Dilemma...

New OEMs can't really offer anything new at this point. All the hw and viable price points are covered, and it's not so popular a platform that you can sell something that's "just put together like all other phones" like they can with Android and still see some success. Acer has never had innovation, or at least I can't recall one product from them that had a feature that others didn't.

Explain to me why Nokia can release all these excellent smartphones (I count 8 on WP8) and companies like HTC and Samsung are taking their good ol' time and releasing one phone every 6 months. This is ridiculous.

Their profit and market is with Android. I assure you if it wasn't for Elop hate for Android Nokia would been in the Android market long ago. Nokia only market is WP. So its only logical they are going to pump every penny into it being successful. Don't forget Elop came from MS.

I understand. It's just annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love what Nokia is doing with their products but, being an 8X user, it's disappointing to see HTC "ditch" Windows Phone like that. Their hardware is so beautiful in color. And considering HTC's market is currently NOWHERE, it doesn't make sense why they are sticking with Android. Clearly no Android users like their phones (not the case anymore, but hopefully you get my point).

Same damn chicken and egg problem. The only MS is to overcome this is to either lower (or eliminate) the cost of WP OS licensing or start throwing money at OEMs like they did with Nokia. The ball is completely in MS's court to handle this situation properly.

If I were them, I'd allow anyone paying me Android royalties to license the WP OS for free or for an extremely nominal fee (less than the Android royalty). Money talks and since MS's money seems to only talk to Nokia, other OEMs will not want to play ball.

Same damn chicken and egg problem. The only MS is to overcome this is to either lower (or eliminate) the cost of WP OS licensing or start throwing money at OEMs like they did with Nokia. The ball is completely in MS's court to handle this situation properly.

If I were them, I'd allow anyone paying me Android royalties to license the WP OS for free or for an extremely nominal fee (less than the Android royalty). Money talks and since MS's money seems to only talk to Nokia, other OEMs will not want to play ball.

I don´t agree with you. Windows Phone 8 should keep costing as much as it does. Otherwise everybody would be doing it, even ACER... I like the fact that it is clearly laid out who is producing what in the windows phone world. I don´t want to see Ching Ling Limited or Muralla Inc or Acer or Sanduval Phones or Huawei or whatever... I would prefer it if only Nokia was doing WP phones but I guess 3 or 4 brads are ok... just definitively not that many brands which are just going to bring something to sell no matter the peace of shit it actually is. If it happens what you are suggesting then in two to three years, windows phone will be nothing different to android

You have to ask yourself though, is it about growing the brand and grabbing market share from apple to be on par with Android or is it about sticking with your guy and fighting an uphill battle? Personally, I would not care if Kyocera or Sharp or Acer or "Ching Ling Ltd" started producing WP devices because it doesn't affect the quality of high end devices. You can go to WalMart and get the Kyocera P634 or you can go to Best Buy and get the HTC One. Both still add to Android's market share and I think WP should also be in the same position.

The last thing ANYONE should want is Nokia being the exclusive OEM because you alienate the other 45% or so of users who like other OEMs and you end up in a position like Apple. I personally have brand loyalty to HTC and won't use Nokia. People have loyalty to Samsung and won't get a 920 because they love their Focus S. You can't leave these folks out.

Lastly you know WP won't be anything like Android and they've shown it with devices that have 256 Mb, 512 Mb and 1 GB ram and the experience is same. We know this isn't the case for Android. This is why I wish MS could have 20 OEMs pushing WP. It would grow the market share and user base.

+1000
i agree with you. just 3 or 4 brands are enough, or else other low quality OEM will be making garbage products like some shitty android phones.
Microsoft throwing cash at Nokia because of their deal that that they'll be using windows phone OS for their smartphones nothing else. i cant undestand why some people whining that Nokia keeps Windows phone to itself. they deserve everything what they have now. HTC must have been offered the same agreement with Nokia, but can't let go of their android thingy. for the love of god, NOkia's the only dedicated wp maker there. and tell that to HTCopypasta, Shamesung and whatever OEM you like.

I love their transparency. I wish more companies were like this. It makes sense for them to wait and see. I respect that. They are running a business after all. They can't just throw around money and phones to see where they stick.

And here you have it the reason why nobody goes around saying they're an Acer fan. Acer isn't cool. Acer doesn't take risks. They wait for others to change the game and then follow in their footsteps. And when for a second they enter unknown grounds they complain about the uncertainty and blame others for making it so hard for them to make money. You have to earn that money like Nokia is doing. I hope that if WP8 does become big Acer is NOT getting a large piece of that pie.

Didn't the Allegro come on the scene around Christmas 2011, instead of 2012 (last year)? Given the market's response, I can understand why Acer would be hesitant. However, ...

Of course it looks like Microsoft has an "overreliance on Nokia." Who else is advertising? Excluding any in-store displays, no one. That's NO ONE, other than Nokia. Whose phones are selling the most? Nokia. Why are you surprised, Acer?

Come to think of it, who is doing most of the advertising for Acer tablets? Of the many ads I've seen, it isn't Acer.

To me this just makes me more convinced that Microsoft needs to make a Surface phone, Too many OEM's are just half-assing it. Second, disappointed that Acer passed because they are the only Windows OEM that are offering truly innovative products.

I think it becomes difficult for oems to compete against Nokia: maps, drive, transportation, huge app support, best camera, great phone design,... What could an oem do to fight for consumers against all those fronts? I'd say if an oem makes a great phone hardware and makes a push to support apps , it might be enough to get some market share. Samsung, and HTC have not done the latter, and the former, that's debatable

At least Microsoft offers some of these services in the WP8 software.
Could you imagine how hard it must be to be BlackBerry?
They have no ecosystem to speak of. No search engine, no cloud, no maps....

I don't blame them. There are a lot of potential manufacturers are afraid of Nokia now. Nokia's Lumia range phones from L520 to EOS have the WP phone market well covered. It is difficult to compete with Nokia's single-minded focus to WP phones with their imaging technology, exclusive apps and phone marketing experience. Longer the competitors wait, the harder for them to jump in. It is like that Samsung dominates the Adroid phone market while Nokia owns the WP market. The commitment counts. Acer is a good PC OEM and they shoud just stay in that arena. Acer R7 is on my favor finalist WP8 laptops.

I hate acer like a plague!
Off topic.... but dell did make the Venue Pro right it's one of the most loved Windows Phone Gen1. I was actually dreaming of the day they will make an Alienware Windows Phone. hmmm oh my...

I'm actualy pretty disappointed - yeah I know they don't make the best phones, but they seem to have made pretty good use of Windows 8 - the S7, R7 and P3 for instance.
Would've been nice to see a WP8 device to complement the ultrabook/tablets range..

Except for possibly recent windows 8 computers, most Acer computers have been crap. So I'm OK with them not making a Windows Phone. It would probably run like crap, and would give people a bad impression of Windows Phone anyways.

Nokia is the reason Windows Phone is doing extremely well, but also the reason why manufacturers are being scared off the platform. I have a 710, 610 and 620 and wont touch any other manufacturer. Hats off to huawei for having a stab at it, but can understand Acers reservations. Hopefully Huawei can suck up all the Chinese market that Nokia don't. HTC, Huawei and Nokia are all we need. Samsung is nice but only because of the brand being popular, otherwise they bring nothing to the table. When people ask about Windows Phone, i find it useful to sell the platform when i mention Samsung WP devices, but always stress Lumia's are the best.

One of the problems is that Android (with so many players) is always having a "new, hot phone" and as far as carrier support (at least in my experience on VZW) it seems like they get Front Page marketing for 2-4 weeks and then it's back to somewhere on the list. With only one OEM and the release cycle being about 1-2 models/year they miss out on this kind of cycle. Also, while most manufacturers are paying some type of licensing fee to MS (rumored to be around $5) and creating lots of profit for MS it is still cheaper than actually licensing the WP8 OS from MS. Lastly, while the WP8 OS doesn't "need" a super fast, high end chip there are certainly apps within the OS (Quick Photo Editing, Web Surfing, Camera Photo Processing or enhancement, etc) that would greatly benefit from a faster processor and more RAM and I think that is where WP8 misses out by not having the latest and greatest SOCs.

I still think Microsoft should build a Surface phone, would be an amazing product and reduce some of the reliance WP has on Nokia..... Plus: I would buy it day one to go with my surface pro! (what an awesome piece of hardware btw)

I love the Lumia 920 hardware, and I love the windows phone software, but the app situation is making me regret my decision. It's becoming more and more frequent to be left out of the loop because I'm on windows phone.

I do understand that it is a risk for an OEM to produce any device and they might loose money. One thing is for sure though. Noone ever made money by NOT selling stuff. Sometimes i have a hard time understanding these companies. On the one hand they want read the market and wait and look how everything turns out and on the other hand they are complaining about MSs reliance to Nokia. Their one and only stable manufacturer? I am sure MS gives love to all those who decide to jump in.

Nokia is the rightful king of WP8. After the lack of support for my HTC Surround (No mention of it on HTC website now) I will buy a Nokia. They are well loved and if I were in some money I would buy Nokia stock. If Acer wanted to sell them they need a super high end,mid range and low end all at once. We need more manufacturers. Would not mind a Motorola, what have they done lately?

I have to agree with Acer. I don't think WP8 is ready. There's a lot missing that you would expect in a new phone. VPN, manual IP configuration, bluetooth HID, etc. I'm all for supporting an emerging platform but in 8 months what has changed? I can't see myself buying another Windows Phone at this point, which is a shame because I'm a huge fan of Nokia.

Don't forget, Acer's still mad about MS producing Surface tablets, although Acer warned MS about the consequence, and no wonder Acer lost interest in WP devices, also Acer makes us consumers in Taiwan still cannot buy any Surface tablets.

It does seem like Microsoft is dependant on Nokia, but it's obvious why. Nokia dominates Windows Phone because of their great hardware and the astounding level of customer service and support they give ($100 credit for Lumia 900, anyone?), plus the plethora of apps they've developed for their phones.
Nokia really brings out the good side of Windows Phone 8, they deserve to rule the Windows Phone 8 market.